


Love Lies Bleeding

by FluffyBeaumont



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Episode Related, Fluff, Gene is so deep in the closet he can count the dust bunnies, Gene's Lips Are Irresistible, Homophobic Language, Kissing, M/M, Romance, Sam is hot for the Guv, Scared!Gene, Sexual Tension, Surprise Kissing, Tender!Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26205685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyBeaumont/pseuds/FluffyBeaumont
Summary: Season 2, Episode 7, "The Shooting" - Gene is scared because he's being fitted up for a murder he didn't commit, and Sam decides to let him go, with a kiss for good luck.
Relationships: Gene Hunt/Sam Tyler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Love Lies Bleeding

For a moment, several moments, it's all running footsteps up the stairs, the Guv ahead of him, that camel hair coat vanishing into the distance. It's amazing to Sam that he can even run, considering how many Marlboro reds he inhales in the run of a day but there he is, long legs eating up the distance, taking the stairs three at a time and it's all Sam can do to keep up with him. Sam, who runs every day, who doesn't smoke, who eats better than Gene's habitual diet of takeaway curries and greasy kebabs, and the odd Curly Wurly for variety.

"Guv!" He doesn't understand why he's calling. They're going somewhere. Gene is fleeing from Chris and God help them Ray, who would be stupid if he only had the brains, but all other things being equal, if they catch Gene then it's Morgan who'll have the final say. "Wait up."

Sam reaches the top of the stairs, pausing on a landing to catch his breath. Chris and Ray are still several flights below. It gives him a keen sort of thrill to know that Gene is outrunning all of them, that Christ and Ray haven't got a hope in hell of catching him. He's too smart for them. He's too fast for them. He's got more experience and brains than all of them put together and Sam is deeply ashamed he ever doubted Gene, that he ever thought Gene could be capable of murder. Not Gene, a good man who hides it behind a veil of sarcasm and cynical _bon mots_ uttered when it's least appropriate. "The last nail in Gene Hunt's coffin," Morgan said. Well, fuck him and the horse he rode in on. Gene Hunt was ten times the man Frank Morgan was, and Sam--

\---Sam loved him.

"Get in here." Gene reaches out a long arm and yanks him into an alcove where they crouch together, Gene's gloved hand over Sam's mouth. Gene smells so good, like soap and aftershave and clean skin, and Sam wants to lean in and press his mouth to the side of Gene's neck. He wants him that badly. "Shut it, Dorothy."

Ray and Chris thunder past and suddenly there's an old man in Gene's dark sunglasses pounding down the stairs at an impressive rate of speed. "Works every bloody time," Gene says, his mouth close against Sam's ear. "They fall for the same bloody trick over and over." His laughter is like music to Sam's ears. He turns to face his Guv, pulse racing with excitement.

"Now's the time," he says, "before they come thundering back. You know what they're like. They'll figure out you've given them the slip." He can't help himself: he reaches out and lays his palm against Gene's acne-scarred face. He loves that face, loves its uneven surface and the pain that time and circumstance has etched into it. He loves Gene's incongruously pink lips, and how the top lip juts out just a bit, and he wants to slot himself into Gene's embrace and tilt the Guv's face down and take hold of that mouth with his own.

"You're getting a kick out of this, you ponce," Gene says, laughing. Sam loves it when the Guv laughs, because it reveals the dimples in his cheeks, and because he looks _so_ goddamn beautiful, and he is. He is beautiful. "Bit of excitement in your day, isn't it, Tyler? Bet you never had this sort of fun in Hyde." His blue eyes are flashing and Sam is so goddamn head over heels in love with him at that moment that he can hardly breathe.

"We get out of this alive," Sam says, "and I've got something to tell you." There is a clattering on the stairs and Chris and Ray are back and there's no more time. There's no more time. "Guv, you've got to go." In that moment it could go either way. He could forget about the promise he'd made himself and do absolutely nothing or he could seize the moment.

He could. He did.

He seizes his Guv's face in both hands and captures Gene's mouth with his own. For an eternal moment Gene freezes in place, his entire body stiffening in response to the caress of Sam's mouth, and then he is -- astonishing, really -- kissing Sam back, reaching to hold his upper arms, pulling Sam close to him, holding him. "Right," Gene says, pulling away, "you bloody great poofter. Get gone."

Sam grins. "Make 'em work for it, Guv." What he really wants to say is _I love you._ What he really wants to say is _I need you_ and _I want you_ and _I never want to be without you ever again._ But he doesn't say any of these things. He does as he's told. He gets gone.

Later, when all is said and done and Gene is absolutely cleared of any wrongdoing, Sam invites Gene to his flat. There's been no mention of the kiss that day, when Chris and Ray were chasing them, when bloody Morgan was dead set on destroying Gene and expecting Sam to help. Everything has continued apace, except perceptive Annie cornered Sam in the cafeteria and demanded to know what was going on. "It's not me you're mad about, is it?" she asked. "It's all right, you can tell me. I won't be crushed on your account, Sam Tyler, if that's what you're thinking." Surprisingly, he found himself confessing all. "You love him, then?" she asked. "You realise that's not going to be easy."

"Nothing worthwhile ever is," he replied. He meant it. Whatever it took, he was up for it. "And you know he's married."

"She's found someone else," Sam said. "He's been keeping it quiet."

"Are you asking for permission?"

"No." He grinned. "Maybe just your blessing?"

"Oh, go on, Sam! Do something wildly romantic and unexpected. Make him yours."

And so Gene arrives in his usual bombastic manner, except he's carrying a bottle of wine and is as nervous as a schoolboy at Sam's door. Nervous, and trying to hide it underneath a thin veneer of bluster. "Put that in the fridge, Dorothy, and chill it like a good boy. Shame to waste a decent vintage on a nancy boy like you." Sam reaches to slide the camel hair coat off his shoulders and Gene allows it, turning to smile at him, a shy smile, a smile that says he doesn't quite know what to expect tonight. He's freshly shaved and smells of some gorgeous cologne and when Sam turns from hanging his coat up, Gene in right there in his personal space. "Never thought I'd see the light of day again," Gene murmurs, as he lifts Sam's face with his gloved hands. "It's all down to you, innit, Gladys? Hm?" The first touch of his lips goes through Sam like a jolt of purest electricity as Gene takes him into his arms and holds him, kissing him as thoroughly as any man has ever been kissed by his beloved. "Now this thing you said you were going to tell me," Gene says, once his mouth is free, "am I to understand it's of a personal nature? More of your poncy French bender rubbish, is it?"

Much later, when they are lying naked together, sweaty and satisfied in each other's arms, Gene complains about the hardness of the bed, the smallness of the flat, how they never got to drink the wine he brought. The flat is dark except for the ambient glow of the streetlight outside, and Gene is relaxed and tousle-haired and beautiful, and Sam finds himself wanting him again. He traces the curve of Gene's cheek with his fingers, and the dark feathers of his long lashes, and the tip of his nose and his gorgeous mouth. "I remembered what I had to tell you," he says at last.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense," Gene says.

Sam curls close to him and whispers it into his ear, and Gene grins at him and pulls him close. "Are you sure?" he asks. Sam assures him that he is.

"Best news I've heard all day." He strokes Sam's cheek and leans in close to kiss him. "Best news I've heard all day."


End file.
